Vatican Astronomers Ramp Up Their Search For “Brother Extraterrestrial”

Why in the world is the Vatican searching for extraterrestrial life? Does the Catholic hierarchy know something about alien life that the rest of us do not? Why is the largest religious organization on the planet spending so much time and energy looking for “brother extraterrestrial”? Earlier this month, the Vatican Observatory cosponsored a major conference on extraterrestrial life that brought together 200 of the leading astrobiologists in the world. One of the organizers stated that one of the goals of the conference was to figure out “how we can find life among the stars within the next two decades“. Certainly it would not be unusual for a group of astronomers and astrobiologists to get together and discuss such things. But why is the Vatican seemingly obsessed with this stuff? As you will see below, there are some high profile Vatican astronomers that seem quite confident that “something” is out there. In fact, one has stated that once it is revealed, “everything we think we know” may have to “be thrown out”.

Normally, a conference that brings together several hundred scientists is not going to make headline news. What makes this one different is the involvement of the Vatican. The following is how this conference was described on NASA’s website…

Motivated by the rapidly increasing number of known Earth-sized planets, the increasing range of extreme conditions in which life on Earth can persist, and the progress toward a technology that will ultimately enable the search for life on exoplanets, the Vatican Observatory and the Steward Observatory announce a major conference entitled The Search for Life Beyond the Solar System: Exoplanets, Biosignatures & Instruments.

The goal of the conference is to bring together the interdisciplinary community required to address this multi-faceted challenge: experts on exoplanet observations, early and extreme life on Earth, atmospheric biosignatures, and planet-finding telescopes.

Asked if he was referring to beings similar to humans or even more evolved than humans, he said: “Certainly, in a universe this big you can’t exclude this hypothesis.”

“Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can’t put limits on God’s creative freedom. Why can’t we speak of a ‘brother extraterrestrial’? It would still be part of creation.”

Funes, who runs the observatory that is based south of Rome and in Arizona, held out the possibility that the human race might actually be the “lost sheep” of the universe. There could be other beings “who remained in full friendship with their creator,” he said.

Wow.

So Funes is actually suggesting that when we do encounter extraterrestrial beings, they may not have fallen into sin like humanity has.

This is an argument that they continue to make and they’re becoming more and more adamant about it, that what we know about ourselves is that we are fallen, right? But we cannot necessarily assume the same thing about our space brethren, and if they’re unfallen, they’re closer to God than we are. Therefore they have a better understanding of the Gospel and of the Godhead and of the nature of God. And when they started out three years ago, Funes was saying “I’d like to baptize an alien into the Catholic faith.” Well that’s not what they’re saying today. What they’re saying now is that they [aliens] are coming here and they’re going to baptize us into their faith and it is going to require us to make changes to our knowledge, to our understanding, of the Gospel. In fact, some of their deepest theologians have said, “Perhaps everything we think we know about the Gospel is going to have to be thrown out.”

Another prominent Vatican astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, has publicly suggested that aliens could actually be the “saviors of humankind“…

Captivating comments from Jesuit priests like Guy Consolmagno–a leading astronomer who often turns up in media as a spokesman for the Vatican who has worked at NASA and taught at Harvard and MIT and who currently splits his time between the Vatican Observatory and laboratory (Specola Vaticana) headquartered at the summer residence of the Pope in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and Mt. Graham in Arizona. Over the last few years, he has focused so much of his time and effort in an attempt to reconcile science and religion in public forums specifically as it relates to the subject of extraterrestrial life and its potential impact on the future of faith that we decided to contact him. He agreed to be interviewed from Rome, and over the numerous exchanges that followed he told us some things that seemed beyond the scope. He even sent us a copy of a private pdf, a literal goldmine of what he and the Vatican are considering regarding the ramifications of astrobiology and specifically the discovery of advanced extraterrestrials… in which he admits how contemporary societies will soon “look to The Aliens to be the Saviours of humankind.”

So if aliens showed up and wanted to show us a “new way”, would society be willing to accept it?